Best Western University Inn & Suites — Hotel in Forest Grove

As leisure travelers from Hawaii, my family of three (2 adults, 1 child) stayed at this hotel while in the area visiting our eldest son in college on the recommendation from his university. For scale of this review: in support of my military job requirements, of the past 12 months, 6 months of that time I lived at a hotel (not Best Western).

As we planned our leisure trip to stay in the area for 7-days/6-nights, online we initially tried to book either an Apartment or a Queen Executive Suite, however both were unavailable so we settled on a 2-queen bed standard room. Upon checking in:

1. staff was really professional, welcoming, and friendly,
2. the clerk recommended we check back in two days for availability of the Executive Queen Suite; we checked back 2 days later and was able to switch rooms,
3. the clerk asked what days we wanted our room serviced, since our stay was plannned for 6 nights, we selected 2 days and they logged it. On those scheduled cleaning days, we forgot to remove the "Do not disturb" sign on our door, so they called the room to ask about servicing our room before housekeeping left for the day. They were very accomodating when we handed them our bags of trash and replaced of our towels. The 24-hour pool area provided clean fresh pool/gym towels.

The first room was rather cozy and tight (especially with a rambunctious 6 year old). The bathroom door opened very close to the toilet and the door didn't shut or lock well. The second room was a lot better and offered a extra smaller living area with a small couch, bar sink, small.desk and a second television. It could have been vacuumed a little better as there were small pepples/rocks and old food crumbs on the floor near the couch. The bathroom was unchanged, the same size and still small as the first room, however the door shut and locked better and one of the light bulbs were out. Overall, we really liked and preferred it to the first room.

We really appreciated and enjoyed the daily complimentary breakfast, however because we were on vacation, we slept in later during the weekdays and would have liked if the breakfast could have stayed opened until 1000am as it does during their weekend hours. Although the variety of breakfast was limited we liked the options offered especially the self-help waffle station and hot breakfast selection. My child really liked the individual-sized cold cereal options.

Friendly housekeeping and front desk staff frequently checked in with us to ensure we were satisfied and needed anything. We will recommend this Best Western hotel in Forest Grove, Oregon to others.

Front desk was very helpful and accomodating with making change for me so I could use the 24-hour self-help washer and dryer. Additionally, when asked, they offered good food places to try in the area

Areas for improvement: Quality Assurance checks for operation of functionality of equipment (i.e. light bulbs and bathroom door locks) and our room could have been vacuumed a little better before checked in. At the pool area, the missing screens on the windows can be replaced to keep the bugs out. There is not much that Best Western can do about the mobile trailer home located in the back with all many barking dogs except they may replace windows with thicker sound...

Stay was May 3rd- May 4th. Check in at 12:30 pm on the 3rd. I wanna start this review by saying I typically only stay in two hotel chains for a comparable met standard of quality, service, cleanliness, and amenities. I either stay at Hiltons, or Best Westerns. Depending on finances. Unfortunately, our stay at this hotel this past weekend was our first time here and may be our last. This post may seem petty to some, but when you live with mental health diagnosis for yourself and your child, seemingly “small” mishaps can have big impacts on said mental heath. My family and I were able to check in early, which was great and very accommodating. We are Native American and were in town supporting family that were taking part in hosting an event at the Stoller Center at the University (it was a Powwow on May 3rd). We checked in, at the desk and went to our room and unpacked and were getting ready to head to the event. My oldest daughter suffers from severe anxiety and PTSD amongst some other things, making leaving our home and her safety net difficult most of the time but we manage. It was approximately 1:50 PM when I am in the bathroom and hear a SCREAM and my daughter and other two kids are yelling hysterically for me. I drop my mirror and run into the main bedroom and see them huddled in a corner screaming and pointing to the corner of the room. I run to them and look to see what they see and my line of vision is greeted by a HUGE spider. Like I said, this may seem petty, but not when your day to day is determined by chemicals in your brain you have little to no control over. The spider was not so much the issue as how we weren’t taken care of was. I immediately call down to front desk, the woman who checked me in answered, and I explained the situation, and my daughters diagnosis to add emphasis on the importance of the matter, and I said, “there are still housekeepers in the hallway, we are leaving immediately, please have one of the housekeepers come vacuum it up, we will be gone a couple hours. Please, please come take care of this.” I described where the spider was located and left, thanking the front desk person on the way out, again. My children and I arrived back at the hotel approximately 7:30 PM and the spider was STILL there! (I have pictures of it. It was not a small spider AT ALL, and the level of harmlessness whether valid or not has nothing to do with what happens to my daughter mentally in a situation like this). My children and I were terrified, exhausted, and wanted to leave but being in a fixed income, didn’t have the ability to pick up and just go somewhere else. The front desk person who came and took care of it was not the one who checked us in, we were thankful she came fairly quickly to handle it. I and my child spent the rest of the night unable to rest, relax or sleep although I checked every crack and crevice in that room to make sure there weren’t anymore spiders in the room. I found a lot of dust and debris and that was basically it. I have a stay coming up at another Best Western the weekend of the 30th and am strongly debating moving my reservation to a different...

WARNING: THIS HOTEL IS NOT PET FRIENLY, it is only DOG friendly. The owner hates cats. DON'T BELIEVE THE RESERVATIONIST OR THE CLAIMS ON THEIR WEBSITE! I made a reservation two days ago by phone. My very first question was to confirm 'do you accept pets, specifically cats'? and he said yes and told me the price with a senior AAA discount. I reserved a room and then asked if I could drop by and see it because we live in the area - we are moving and I needed a good nights sleep after the movers came to take our furniture and before driving the following day. He said they don't usually show rooms, but I decided to drop by anyway and ask again because my husband is picky. I immediately stopped by, got to see a room, specifically showed the desk clerk where the litter box would go... and told him about my 17 year old cat (the other 3 were boarded). We talked about their big PET POLICY at SIGNAGE at the front desk, which doesn't say anything about the type of pet being limited.

Tonight we arrive and the girl at the desk says no cats allowed regardless of the reservation and the PET POLICY signage (Please claim ALL PETS at check-in. ...the daily PET fee, and max # of PETS per room, and that there will be a non-refundable charge of $100 for PETS not claimed at check in). No signage saying DOGS ONLY. There was no grace, no deposit sufficient. She supposedly called her manager, and I called a Best Western call center and there was nothing they could do. The desk clerk FINALLY offered to refund my money!!! As if she might keep it???? The owner hates cats so we will be sleeping on the floor at 67 years old and then driving hundreds of miles tomorrow.

The website also says one of their top amenities is that they are PET FRIENDLY and similarly elucidates their PET POLICY. Only if you get to the very bottom of all their amenities and all their policies, which is quite a list, there it finally says dogs only in fine print at the very bottom on the last line! The desk clerk thought that was all they needed to be clear! No remorse whatsoever. Did you read my entire post? If not - then you won't get to the bottom of their website...